Principal suspect in Castillo slay surrenders to Lacson
MANILA — John Paul Sarte Solano, among the principal suspects in the death of UST law student Horacio Tomas Castillo III, yesterday surrendered to Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
A dz MM report said Solano, accompanied by UST Law Dean Nilo Divina, went to the office of Lacson at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. Manila Police District (MPD) Director Joel Coronel was also in Lacson’s office.
Lacson is expected to turn over Solano to the MPD.
Coronel earlier said Solano “deliberately misled” authorities by giving false statements about the death of Castillo.
Solano claimed in his voluntary sworn affidavit that he didn’t know Castillo and that he just saw him last Sunday, September 17, wrapped in a thick white blanket on the corner of a street in Balut, Tondo.
Solano, who only disclosed that he is working as a part-time medical technologist at the San Lazaro Hospital, also said in his affidavit that he rode a motorcycle to buy cigarette at the corner of H. Lopez and Infanta streets where he saw Castillo’s body.
He then claimed that he had flagged down a red Mitsubishi Strada pickup to help him bring Castillo to the Chinese General Hospital, where the victim was declared dead on arrival.
But police found out through a CCTV footage that Solano knew Castillo as the two were seen walking together outside UST on Dapitan Street in Sampaloc, Manila with other students past 5 p.m. on September 16, a day before Solano claimed that he saw the victim’s body on the street.
Authorities likewise found out that Solano was also a UST law student and a member of Aegis Juris, who had recruited Castillo to join the fraternity.
Earlier, officials of Barangay 133 disputed Solano’s claim that he found Castillo at the corner of H. Lopez and Infanta streets. The barangay’s CCTV recordings showed there was no body found in the area at the time when Solano claimed that he saw Castillo’s cadaver.
Also, authorities found out that the Strada pickup with plate number ZTV 539 that Solano supposedly flagged down to help him bring Castillo to the hospital belonged to Antonio Trangia, whose son, Ralph Caballes Trangia, is also a member of Aegis Juris.